The invention set forth in this specification pertains to new and improved grinding disks or wheels which are primarily intended for use in grinding nuts in the manufacture of nut butters, but which are considered to be capable of other utilities.
Grinding disks or wheels have been utilized for centuries in grinding many different types of materials. For a great many years it has been conventional to grind vegetable products such as grains, nuts, or the like, by introducing such products into a centrally located opening in a single wheel of a set of so-called "mill" wheels while supplying mechanical power to at least one of such wheels to cause relative motion between such wheels. In conventional grinding wheels the material so located passes outwardly between grooves as at least one of the wheels noted is rotated. Grinding wheels of this type have been proved by prolonged experience to be quite desirable and utilitarian.
However, several problems have been encountered in attempting to utilize grinding wheels of the generalized type indicated in the preceding discussion in connection with the production of nut butters from nuts such as peanuts in small sized grinding apparatuses which are primarily intended for domestic or home type use. For economic reasons it was desired to utilize in such apparatuses comparatively small-sized electric motors having a shaft speed which was considerably greater than the speed of rotation conventionally used with many types of mill and similar wheels. Further, for economic reasons it was considered desirable to have the power output rating of such a motor as small as possible.
One of the problems encountered concerns the nuts which were introduced between a set of grinding wheels, one of which was held stationary and the other of which was rotated by a directly coupled motor as indicated being ejected out through the feed opening used to introduce these nuts into the space between the wheels. Another problem encountered concerns the operability of the grinding disks with various different types of nuts. It was determined that a more or less conventionally constructed set of grinding disks or wheels could not be expected to function satisfactorily with various nuts of the same type such as dry peanuts, oily peanuts and both large and small peanuts. Under certain conditions it was considered that the wheels used might tend to gum up and to stall out the motor employed. Under certain conditions it was found that nuts would not move outwardly through the space between the grinding wheels.